


Still Standing Still

by lopsidedhead



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Evil Twins, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Oneshot, iskall is nonbinary and we should talk about it more, iskall uses neopronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24782401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lopsidedhead/pseuds/lopsidedhead
Summary: Iskall tries to clone himself, with... not-so-great results.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Still Standing Still

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to preface this with a warning: this is pretty bad writing tbh. It was written at like 2am and it's only purpose is so that there can be some much-needed neopronouns!Iskall content.  
> Anyway, nonbinary Iskall. Enjoy!

Iskall opened up the last shulker box of wood fae had received from Ren and sighed heavily. Eight whole shulker boxes, and fae had already almost run out! This omega tree of doom was taking up more and more resources. But, if fae was honest to faeself, fae wouldn't trade it for a more "normal" megabase like Xisuma's concrete jungle or Grian's mansion. Iskall was perfectly happy with the amount of work this tree was taking, even if it did take fae away from some of faer other commitments.

As fae placed the last log that fae had to hand, finishing off one of the gigantic branches that stretched out over the jungle, fae realised that the sun was setting already. Fae'd spent the entire day just placing logs, shaping the tree, and fae couldn't wait to start building some omega storage systems and item sorters in the canopy.

Iskall stepped off the branch, wind rushing in faer hair as fae fell, opening faer elytra at just the right moment to soar over the puny jungle trees. Fae spammed rockets before turning around, witnessing the ginormous tree with the sun setting behind it. It was a gorgeous sight.

As fae flew back to faer base to get some sleep for the night, Iskall's mind began to wander. Fae'd heard that Beef had some sort of cloning contraption (of doom) and while fae was kind of wary of that sort of thing, it would definitely help fae a lot if fae could have one of fae using the tree farm while the other built more branches. So when fae got home, Iskall sent Beef a message asking if fae could use it. No harm in asking, right?

The next morning, Iskall was standing in front of a curious machine made of spruce and redstone, a door open and inviting fae into the chamber inside.

"There was a couple of teething problems with me and Wels, it didn't really work for us, but I think I've finally figured it out! I replaced the trapdoors at the back with a door, I think that should do it," Beef rambled. "All you've gotta do is hold a blaze rod in each hand, step into the water, and close the door!" he exclaimed, flicking a lever on the back of the contraption.

"Are you sure this is safe, man?" Iskall asked, voice incredulous.

"Yeah! Nothing bad happened to me or Wels when we tried it."

And so Iskall stepped into the water-filled cauldron that sat inside of the machine, holding the blaze rods just like Beef told fae to. 

"Three, two, one…"

Iskall pulled the door shut with a _bang_ , and suddenly a jolt of electricity rushed through faer body. Faer world went dark for just a second, and when faer vision came back… nothing had changed. Fae felt a bit happier than usual, maybe, but there was no clone or anything.

"Damn! It didn't work again! I have no idea what's going wrong!" Beef exclaimed exasperatedly as Iskall climbed out of the contraption.

"Hey, it was worth a shot! Thanks anyway, man." Iskall replied, and it was true - fae wasn't really annoyed about it. Fae didn't lose anything, after all. And so Iskall returned to faer base to pick up some shulker boxes, ready for another round at the tree farm.

As Iskall mined some shulker boxes from faer pile, fae was unaware that another pair of eyes watched fae from closeby, more malicious than Grian's trickster eyes and as red as Tango's eyes. One of them was robotic, much like Iskall's, except instead of lime green it was the colour of fire.

All Iskall heard as fae put the shulker boxes into faer inventory was the soft _thwump_ of an arrow embedding into wood. Turning around, a spectral arrow stuck out directly next to fae, barely missing faer robotic arm.

"Who's there?" Iskall shouted nervously. Sure, fae was decent at PvP, but that wasn't supposed to happen in Hermitcraft without fae saying fae was okay with it, and at that particular moment Iskall was definitely not okay with it.

Instead of an answer, all fae got was an arrow to faer metal arm, sparks flying everywhere. Faer robotic eye focused on faer surroundings, brightness turned up as far as comfortably possible to pick out any intruders - there. Straight in front of fae but mostly hidden behind a block, the person who stood in front of Iskall was, well… Iskall. Except with red eyes and darker clothing. Fae had to resist the urge to immediately call the figure "Iskall of Doom".

"Hello, Iskall. I am Helskall. I am the bad side of you - your fears, your selfishness, your anger. I shall destroy your pretty little server and everything you hold dear, and my pronouns are ne/nym. Do you have any questions?"

"Uhhhh…" Iskall was thrown for a loop. This "Helskall" had just shown up, shot a couple of arrows at fae, and now was just admitting that ne wanted to destroy the server!

"I'm taking that as a no," Helskall hissed, drawing a sword covered in an oily solution. With nys other hand, ne brought out a flint and steel, which ne clicked next to the sword. The sword burst into flames, scorching the wood closest to nym.

"Why are you doing this‽" Iskall cried, drawing faer own sword as fae backed up against the inside of the tree.

"Long live the Hel dimension!" was all fae got before Helskall charged, sword ready to strike. Iskall rolled out of the way, jabbing faer sword upwards and into Helskall's soft, exposed flesh. But the angle wasn't quite right, and it didn't quite deal the amount of damage fae had hoped - in fact, Helskall barely seemed worried. Ne slashed nys sword, barely catching Iskall's cheek with the blade and burning faer skin, and then jabbed again. At the same time, Iskall slashed to faer left, knocking the wind out of Helskall as the sword cut into nys side. Nys jab went wide, instead hitting wood. To Iskall's horror, the blade became embedded in the bark, flames licking at the wood. Soon the sword was embroiled in a spreading patch of fire, Helskall desperately pulling at the hilt while simultaneously maniacally laughing. It would've been funny had firetick been off… which it wasn't.

The tree was about to go up in flames.

Iskall took the opportunity to slash at Helskall once again, faer blade catching nym in nys side. Ne dropped to nys knees, still trying nys hardest to pull the sword out of the tree, now limited to the metal arm thanks to the heat of the fire.

"Go. Run away," Iskall pleaded, eyes focused on the quickly spreading flames making their way up the tree. And somehow, Helskall complied, running for the Nether portal and disappearing through it with a haunted look in nys eyes.

_ <Iskall85> big fire at my tree, help needed asap _

_ <Grian> omw _

_ <iJevin> be there soon _

The flames made their way up the ginormous tree, eating up the wood and the fragile leaves as if they were nothing. Despite the best efforts of half the server hauling buckets, by the time the fire died down the tree was mostly gone.

Iskall knew fae'd made a compromise. On one hand, Helskall was gone, back in the Nether somewhere, hopefully forever. But on the other hand… faer tree was also gone.

But fae knew fae could rebuild it.

And the omega tree of doom would be bigger and better than ever!

**Author's Note:**

> God, that was a shitshow. Feel free to read my actually serious fic about my minesona, Throw Down Your Fears!


End file.
